Priority Registration Debuts on the Web Date: May 26, 2000 By: Chris Curran Phone: (513) 556-1806 Archive: Campus News, General News For the first time ever, UC students don't have to fill out a long sheet of paper or computer sheet to benefit from priority registration. Web Priority Registration debuted this week for Fall Quarter 2000. The service makes it even simpler for students to select courses and arrange their schedules, because the course catalog, "Learning Opportunities," is also online. The response to the service was overwhelming, according to University Registrar Lynn Barber. "We had over 500 course requests in the first two hours. That's amazing!" By the end of the first day, nearly 900 students had registered for over 4,000 courses. Barber said the availability of expanded Web registration services is the result of close cooperation between the staffs of the Office of the Registrar and the Office of Information Technologies (UCit). Priority has gone paperless. Until this quarter, students entered course requests on paper forms which were returned to the college offices for forwarding to the Registrar's Office. The registration staff then entered the course requests into the mainframe computer system and tried to resolve errors when students entered incorrect course numbers. "Priority Registration on the Web allows students to enter their course requests directly into the mainframe computer system through the web and to resolve entry errors as they occur," explained Barber. Web registration has been available since Fall 1999; however, this is the first time students could schedule classes electronically during Priority Registration. Priority scheduling for fall quarter will occur in June, and students can use the Web or UC Express beginning July 10 to see their schedules and make changes if necessary. Priority Web Registration will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week until June 2. By the end of the priority registration period, Barber expects that approximately 15,000 students will have used the new system.